Twitter accounts for storm, relief updates

By Brandon Griggs, CNN

Updated 2:41 PM ET, Mon October 29, 2012

Photos: New York braces for Sandy38 photos

New York braces for Sandy – The facade of an apartment building collapsed on Monday, October 29, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Superstorm Sandy smashed ashore in the northeastern United States Monday night, triggering floods, fires and devastation. See more photos of Sandy's destructive path.

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Photos: New York braces for Sandy38 photos

New York braces for Sandy – Two men wade through the flooded streets of Brooklyn on Monday as Sandy made landfall.

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New York braces for Sandy – Floodwater is pumped out of a building in the financial district of New York on Monday evening.

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New York braces for Sandy – A pedestrian walks across a New York street where the power was out late Monday. The storm surge set records in Lower Manhattan, where flooded substations caused a widespread power outage.

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Photos: New York braces for Sandy38 photos

New York braces for Sandy – Firefighters use a saw in an attempt to remove a partially collapsed door during the storm in New York on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – Rising water rushes into an underground parking garage in New York's financial district on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – A visitor does a cartwheel in the rain in New York's Times Square on Monday, October 29.

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New York braces for Sandy – A construction vehicle drives through flooded streets in Brooklyn on Monday as Sandy makes its way north.

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New York braces for Sandy – Firefighters evaluate an apartment building in New York City where the front wall collapsed due to Hurricane Sandy on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – A police car looks out over Manhattan from near the Brooklyn Bridge as Sandy begins to affect the area on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – People drink at a bar in New York's East Village during the stormy weather on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – Empty toll booths remain closed on Monday at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in New York.

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New York braces for Sandy – New York City firefighters and emergency workers view a collapsing crane hanging from a 90-story residential building in New York on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – Part of a crane boom is seen hanging off a building under construction in Manhattan on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – A car goes through standing water along FDR Drive as New Yorkers venture out into the stormy conditions on Monday, October 29.

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New York braces for Sandy – A woman walks down the promenade along the East River in New York on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – The Holland Tunnel in New York is closed due to Hurricane Sandy on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – Motorists drive on FDR Drive along the banks of the East River in Manhattan on Monday before Hurricane Sandy makes landfall.

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New York braces for Sandy – Two people cross the street near the closed Holland Tunnel on Monday as Hurricane Sandy moves up the coast.

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New York braces for Sandy – The East River in New York churns as Hurricane Sandy approaches on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – Workers close the Holland Tunnel before Hurricane Sandy makes landfall on Monday. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the closing of that tunnel, as well as the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, due to flooding concerns.

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New York braces for Sandy – People pose outside the sandbagged entrance of the closed Fifth Avenue Apple Store on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – A man walks near the Verrazano Bridge in Brooklyn as Hurricane Sandy moves in.

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New York braces for Sandy – A woman watches waves crash onto a pier on New York's City Island on Monday. Residents were ordered to evacute the island.

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New York braces for Sandy – A jogger runs along East River Drive near the Queensboro Bridge in New York City as a police car closed the area down on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – The Hudson River comes over the seawall along the West Side Promenade in the Battery Park area of New York City on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – A tourist stands in Times Square early Monday, October 29, as New Yorkers prepare to endure Hurricane Sandy.

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New York braces for Sandy – A sailboat smashes on the rocks after breaking free from its mooring on City Island, New York, on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – A security guard looks over Times Square on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – A New York City police officer stands guard at the 42nd Street subway station in Times Square on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – Dark clouds mask the Manhattan skyline as Hurricane Sandy approaches New York on Monday.

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New York braces for Sandy – People walk across a rainy Brooklyn Bridge as New York City braces for Hurricane Sandy's arrival.

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New York braces for Sandy – A man watches the waves in New York Harbor from Battery Park on October 29. The core of Sandy's force is supposed to hit the New York area Monday night.

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New York braces for Sandy – A man runs to make the last Metro North Train as the last people are cleared out of Grand Central Station on October 28. The MTA began an orderly shutdown of commuter rail and subway service in preparation for Hurricane Sandy.

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New York braces for Sandy – People pose for pictures on the Rockaway Beach Boulevard in Queens ahead of the storm on October 29.

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New York braces for Sandy – The subway platform at Columbus Circle stands empty after the closure on October 28 due to the storm.

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New York braces for Sandy – New York City police officers cordon off the subway entrance at Broadway and 72nd Street as the city shuts down public transportation ahead of the storm on October 28.

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New York braces for Sandy – A pedestrian rides past fruit and vegetable stalls covered with tarps on Broadway on October 28.

Story highlights

In the event of a power outage, cell phones could provide crucial news updates

As Hurricane Sandy converges with other storms and threatens to wreak havoc on the mid-Atlantic coast, power outages could make it difficult for residents to get up-to-date information.

But mobile phones can provide crucial updates as long as their batteries hold out. (If you live in the storm's path and it's not too late, this might be a good time to invest in a wireless phone charger.)

News apps and mobile sites are helpful, but for real-time streaming updates, it's hard to beat Twitter. With that in mind, here's a roundup of Twitter accounts offering real-time information about evacuations, mass transit, flooding, power outages and emergency-relief efforts.

Fugate: People need to be safe

Just Watched

Sandy approaching northeast U.S.

For more frequent updates, the Weather Channel is tweeting every few minutes on its Hurricane Central account, which posts everything from recorded wind speeds ("La Guardia airport in #NYC just reported a gust to 58 mph") to photos of surf pounding the coastline. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the folks at NASA have been tweeting satellite images of the storm's massive spiral along with flooding forecasts and other information.

The emergency-preparedness experts at FEMA are posting updates about local shelters along with safety reminders ("Now that you've prepared for #Sandy, the next step is to check on your neighbors- make sure they're ready too. We're in it together.") The American Red Cross also is posting lists of shelters, blood drives and other info.

All the governors of the affected states are on Twitter with regular updates about evacuation plans, highway closures and emergency hotlines. Among the most active are Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, Chris Christie of New Jersey (who, in typically blunt fashion, tweeted "Don't Be Stupid, Get Out"), Andrew Cuomo of New York, Jack Markell of Delaware, Dan Malloy of Connecticut and Martin O'Malley of Maryland.

Amtrak is posting regular updates about limited or canceled Northeast Corridor train service. So are local transit services, such as New Jersey Transit (which suspended all service Monday), and Greyhound, the bus line.

For air travelers, there does not appear to be a Twitter account that aggregates the status of flights across multiple airlines. But all the major airlines are tweeting updates about delayed or canceled flights.

Hurricane Sandy

A mother learns that her newborn is part of a hospital evacuation. Facebook posts from a member of the HMS Bounty turn ominous. A man worries about the wind and rain, but another force of nature hits home.

Ashley Murray became the first female president of Liberty Industrial Gases and Welding Supplies Inc. in Brooklyn. But now the family history Murray was charged with preserving is at risk of ending after Superstorm Sandy.

The adage says "a picture is worth a thousand words," but when Leeann Lewandowski happened upon a photograph of her late mother on Facebook after her home was destroyed in Superstorm Sandy, she was speechless.